Showing Archived Posts

The United States says last year was the warmest ever in the country. Government weather experts said Tuesday the average 2012 temperature in the country’s 48 contiguous states — not counting the island state of Hawaii and far northern Alaska — was 55.32 degrees Fahrenheit . That was a full degree higher than the old […]

Pope Benedict has called for world peace and condemned inequalities between the rich and the poor in a New Year’s Day Mass. The pontiff spoke out against what he called “unregulated financial capitalism” in his address from St. Peter’s Basilica Tuesday, marking the church’s world day of peace. Other world leaders who have delivered New […]

Burma’s largest city, Rangoon, staged a large New Year’s Eve party for the first time, as the country emerges from a decades-long military dictatorship that typically banned large public gatherings. In the southern Philippines, the festive mood was overshadowed by the devastation from a typhoon that killed more than 1,000 people in early December. And […]

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has used a New Year speech to call for the development of more advanced weapons, as well as an “end to confrontation” on the Korean peninsula. In the surprise address broadcast Tuesday on state television, Mr. Kim called on his country to hold fast “to the ideals of independence, […]

Nations across Europe, the Middle East and Asia have welcomed in the new year as celebrations unfold around the globe. Fireworks lit up the sky over dozens of cities to celebrate the arrival of 2013, including festivities in Athens, Moscow and London. Dubai marked the new year with a light show at the world’s tallest […]

A gigantic fireworks display has lit up Sydney harbor as Australia and other Asia-Pacific nations become the first to welcome the new year. An estimated 1.5 million people gathered around the Sydney harbor on a warm summer night to see the $6.9 million fireworks show, with some camping out for much of the day to […]

A gigantic fireworks display has lit up Sydney harbor as Australia’s east coast and other Pacific nations become the first to welcome the new year. An estimated 1.5 million people gathered around the Sydney harbor to see the $6.9 million fireworks show, with some camping out for much of the day to get a good […]

Time magazine has named U.S. President Barack Obama its “Person of the Year.” The magazine says the president’s historic reelection was symbolic of the country’s changing demographics. It also called him the “symbol and in some ways the architect of this new America.” This is Mr. Obama’s second time receiving the accolade; Obama, a Democrat […]

The U.S. and Russian space agencies have selected two men for a one-year mission aboard the International Space Station. Astronaut Scott Kelly and cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko will head to the orbiting laboratory on a Russian Soyuz rocket in the spring of 2015, and return to Kazakhstan 12 months later. The mission will include collecting scientific […]

People are ushering in the lunar new year with fireworks and celebrations in Asia and around the world. Monday marks the start of the Year of the Dragon in the 12-year rotation of the Chinese Zodiac calendar. The mythical and powerful dragon symbolizes royalty and good fortune, and for believers, the year and those born […]